Iraq Pipeline Watch

2004
37. January 7 - explosion holes pipeline connecting oil fields to a pumping station in the area around Hassiba, 85 miles (135 km) west of Kirkuk, Northern Oil Company director general Adel Kazzaz said "The fuel line was used for domestic market needs and filling up tankers that export crude."
38. January 30 - explosion on pipeline carrying crude oil from Kirkuk to Bayji refinery.
39. February 22 - explosion and fire on the Kirkuk-Baghdad-Basra pipeline near Al-Hare, a small town west of Karbala, about 70 miles (110 km) south of Baghdad. This is reported to be the first attack against a pipeline in southern Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
40. February 26 - explosion apparently caused by homemade bomb thrown under oil and gas pipes damaged part of an oil pipeline about 60 miles (96 km) north of Baghdad.
41. March 2 - large explosion on oil pipeline near the northern city of Kirkuk causing a huge fire but no casualties. The blast hit the main oil line leading to the Bayji refinery 125 miles (200 km) north of Baghdad igniting a huge fire police chief Turhan Yussef said. "The explosion happened at 11.15am (0615 AEDT). An explosive device was placed under the pipeline at Al-Riad, 21 miles (35 km) west of Kirkuk," he said.
42. March 10 - fire on an oil pipeline south of Baghdad, leading from southern fields to the Daura refinery outside Baghdad. Firefighter Saleh Jabbar said it appeared to be the result of sabotage.
43. March 12 - oil pipeline blown up west of Tikrit on Friday, resulting in a fire on the line. The pipeline links northern oil fields in Kirkuk with the Daura refinery on the edge of Baghdad.
44. March 24 - Northern Oil Company oil well in the Khabaz area, about 55 miles (88 km) west of Kirkuk, was bombed at night. The resulting fire was extinguished late the following day. Gen. Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps chief in Kirkuk said the well was not being tapped at the time of the blast nor was it closely guarded. "This is a terrorist act. This is the first time an oil well has come under attack in Kirkuk." Amin said.
45. March 25 - blast on a main oil well in northern Iraq that feeds exports through Turkey. Adel Qazzaz, director-general of the Northern Iraqi Company (NOC) said, "The explosion occurred at 3:30 pm (1230 GMT) because of an explosive charge planted by unknown individuals inside the well, located 47 miles (75 km) west of Kirkuk." He added, "It inflicted massive damage in the well, and firefighters are having a hard time extinguishing it because the explosion occurred inside the well and not in the pipelines." Qazzaz said firemen would need two days to put out the fire, and noted "the well is a principal producer for oil exports through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline and for covering local market demands."
46. March 26 - pipeline in the southern Basra oil facilities on fire, said an official from Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization. Iraqi guards on duty at Shuaiba, near the southern city of Basra, said saboteurs ignited crude oil that leaked from the pipeline. A British military spokesman disagreed with the report, saying "It was not the result of an explosion. We understand that a pipeline valve failed and fire broke out from the resultant spillage."
47. April 4 - attack on oil pipeline in southern Iraq which links Basra with Faw port on the Persian Gulf. ruptured it and set the oil ablaze.
48. April 8 - mortar round hit natural gas tank and another hit a pipeline at a plant north of Kirkuk operated by the Northern Iraqi Company (NOC) Jumaa Ahmad, head of the fire fighting brigade, said.
49. April 21 - bombing on pipeline north of Baghdad.
50. April 24 - suicide bombers in three boats blew themselves up in and around the Basra terminal zone, one of the most heavily guarded facilities of its kind in the world.
51. May 8 - bomb 35 miles (56 km) south of Basra damaged an 18-foot section of one of two pipelines running from Basra to the Faw peninsula on the Gulf. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Spokesman Steve Wright said oil exports from the Basra and Khor al-Amaya offshore southern terminals, through which about 90% of Iraq's oil exports flow, were stopped as a result: "Pumping has stopped. They attacked in the vicinity where the manifold goes into the sea." According to Iraqi officials exports were still flowing from Basra albeit at a reduced rate of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) compared with 1.6 million bpd prior to the attack as oil from the damaged pipeline is flowing through the parallel pipeline. Ali Nasr al-Rubaie, director of the main port terminal said exports had been halved following the attack: "We have dropped from an average of 80,000 barrels per hour to 40,000 barrels per hour."
52. May 8 - attack on oil pipeline taking crude northwards from the country’s southern oilfields at point 25 miles (40 km) south of Baghdad, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said on Saturday, noting it would take several days to start pumping oil again.
53. May 9 - blast near a strategic oil pipeline network linking north and south Iraq, by the town of Musayyib, about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad. Unclear what caused the explosion or whether the pipeline itself was damaged.
54. May 13 - rocket landed in a gas plant at the Daura oil refinery in Baghdad, injured a worker and caused a fire.
55. May 24 - explosion badly damaged the Northern pipeline at around 7pm local time on a section between the Kirkuk oilfields and the Dibis pumping installations. A security official of Iraq's Northern Oil Company, Juma Ahmad, said pumping had to be stopped to fight the fire. Another security official for Northern Oil, Issam Muhammad, said while the fire had been put out it would take 12 days to repair the damage.
56. May 26 - explosion on Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline near Kirkuk.
57. May 26 - explosion on southern pipeline through which oil flows to the Persian Gulf.
58. June 6 - attack on Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. Iraq's Northern Oil Company (NOC) chief Ghazi Talabani said "Assailants detonated sound grenades on the pipeline Sunday at dawn (local time), 120 km (75 miles) east of Kirkuk, causing damage, and a loss of a huge quantity of oil." He said "The oil loss has been stopped and a group of technical experts are repairing the pipeline and the damage could be repaired by Tuesday night. Restarting production depends on the decision of the coalition and the oil ministry." NOC project manager Abdullah al-Rubai had earlier denied the attack.
59. June 6 - explosion on oil pipeline that feeds the Basra terminal near Basra on the Faw Peninsula's southern end. The blast slowed oil flow from 80,000 barrels per hour to 40,000.
60. June 9 - blast on oil pipeline near Bayji 155 miles (250 km) north of Baghdad cut supplies to the Bayji electric power station and according to Iraq Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad forced a reduction of 400 megawatts, amounting to a 10% output cut on the national power grid.
61. June 9 - blast on Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Anwar Hamed Amin, chief of Iraqi Civil Defence Corps, said "A bomb placed 80 km (50 miles) west of Kirkuk exploded at 8:20am [local time] on the main pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal."
62. June 15 - Explosion in the morning on a pipeline through which oil flows from the Zubeir 1 pumping station to a depot in Faw, 40 miles southeast of Basra.
63. June 15 - Another explosion, during the evening, on a southern pipeline. Together with the attack on the pipeline to Basra, the attack on this 48-inch pipeline through which oil flows to Khor al-Amaya port cut oil exports from the south by over half according to the Iraqi Southern Oil Company.
64. June 15 - ``An oil pipeline connecting the fields in Kirkuk and a processing station in Bajwan, 20 km (12 miles) north of the city, was sabotaged and a fire broke out,'' said Adel Kazaz, a North Oil Company director. The pipeline supplied oil to domestic refineries.
65. June 16 - 42-inch Pipeline to Basra terminal, the key terminal from which most of Iraq's 1.6 million bpd of Basra Light were exported, attacked again. Iraqi Southern Oil Company's spokesman said: "Due to the damage inflicted on the two pipelines, the pumping of oil to the Basra oil terminal has completely stopped," adding that southern exports have "come to halt." A Iraqi oil official reported "There are no exports from Basra oil terminal or Khor al-Amaya and it is unclear when they will restart," adding, "Both pipelines feeding the terminals have been destroyed."
66. June 16 - Chief of security for Iraq's Northern Oil Company, Ghazi Talabani, 70, was shot and killed in Kirkuk as he was being driven to work. His driver was badly wounded. The assassins escaped.
67. June 21 - blast on pipeline transporting crude oil from the northern town of Bayji to Daura refinery at point near al-Mashahidah, 20 miles (32 km) north of Baghdad. The explosion interrupted supplies to the refinery, that provides the domestic Iraqi market with gasoline, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas.
68. June 26 - explosion near Latifiyah, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Baghdad, on small pipeline that feeds crude oil to storage tanks in Latifiyah.
69. June 29 - another blast on pipeline near Latifiyah.
70. July 3 - Fire in Al-Maqalai, southeast of the Az-Zubayr oil fields, on one of the two pipelines that feed the southern terminals resulted in a drop by half of Iraqi oil exports to 960,000 barrels per day. Exports in the South fell from 84,000 barrels per hour to 40,000. While one Iraqi oil official said, "Fire is raging in the 42-inch pipeline on the Faw Peninsula. It was sabotage," an official from the Southern Iraqi Oil Company said "News that one of the key oil export pipeline in the Faw peninsula was attacked by saboteurs are baseless."
71. July 4 - attack on pipeline that carries oil from the northern oil fields to the south at point near Musayyib, about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Baghdad.
72. July 6 - blast on gas pipeline that feeds multiple power plants in the center and north of Iraq and a gas canister factory in Taji, north of Baghdad, that provides gas for many homes. Head of the Northern Gas Company, Huner Hassan, said "A device exploded along the pipeline about 90 km (56 miles) south of Kirkuk, sparking a fire." He noted "This is going to affect electricity production for the country and the production of gas for domestic use."
73. July 10 - explosion at approximately 6:30am local time about 55 miles (88 km) west of Kirkuk in the Safra area on a gas pipeline that runs from the gas fields in Kirkuk to a power station in Bayji sparked a fire on, according to the Northern Gas Co. head of security, Ahmed al-Hassan, less than a meter of the pipeline.
74. July 14 - Northern Oil Company police officer was shot to death while manning a checkpoint near a pipeline in Riyad, approximately 80 km southwest of Kirkuk.
75. July 15 - explosion on pipeline running from the northern oil fields to the Beiji refinery.
76. July 15 - holes were drilled on a major southern pipeline that runs to offshore export terminals. The damage occured in the al-Askari district, 20 km south-west of Basra, according to head of the Iraqi Border Police, Staff Brigadier General Ali al-Mousawi. It appears this may be the work of looters.
77. July 15 - explosion near Fatha, some 55 miles (90 km) west Kirkuk, at about 8:40 a.m. (0440 GMT) on oil pipeline that runs from the major oil fields in Kirkuk and the Turkish port Ceyhan. The resulting fire has been extinguished and repairs on the pipeline are expected to begin July 17.
78. July 16 - attempted mortar attack on northern oil pipeline that runs from Kirkuk to Ceyhan failed. According to a security official at the Northern Oil Company, Ahmad Hassan Afif, "A mortar round was thrown at about 8:10 am (0410 GMT) on the pipeline near to Riad, 35 kilometres west of Kirkuk, causing a fire in a pool of oil created by leaks, but failing to cause any other damage."
79. July 17 - attempt to blow up natural gas pipeline failed as saboteur's bomb exploded prematurely, killing him but not damaging the pipeline.
80. July 19 - explosion on oil pipeline that runs through al-Debis region northwest of Kirkuk, supplying oil for domestic use in refineries and power plants.
81-82. July 23 - two blasts on 125 mile (200 km) long oil pipeline that runs from al-Daura refinery in Baghdad to Beiji, at point about 12 miles (20 km) south of Samarra.
83. July 24 - explosion southwest of the town of Samarra, 60 miles (100 km) north of Baghdad, sparked a fire on pipeline that carries oil from Beiji refinery to Baghdad.
84. July 24 - blast in the vicinity of Tharthar Lake, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Kirkuk, on oil pipeline that runs from the oil fields around Kirkuk to Al-Dura power station, south of Baghdad.

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